Latest / Cat Scan Guru Podcast / EP. 75 My CT Origin Story: From a Lost CT Technologist to a Successful Badass

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EP. 75 My CT Origin Story: From a Lost CT Technologist to a Successful Badass · Cat Scan Guru Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello, hello, welcome back, everybody.
• 0:02
  Welcome back to the podcast. Welcome back technologist back
• 0:07
  recording episodes again. This is one of the most exciting
• 0:09
  things I love to do besides making Tik Toks.
• 0:12
  I love doing this. So welcome back, everybody.
• 0:15
  Spooky season is right around the corner.
• 0:17
  I just got a realization that shit, the holidays are upon us
• 0:21
  and it is just like going so fast.
• 0:23
  So we're going to be into 2026 like super, super soon.
• 0:27
  So let me give you guys some updates on what is going on.
• 0:32
  OK, so because it is cold as fuck in the Midwest, so I am
• 0:38
  like freezing and got all my sweatshirts and I got some
• 0:41
  really cool gym gear that is like coming.
• 0:44
  So that is like my favorite part.
• 0:45
  So if you don't follow me on TikTok, I just recently
• 0:50
  documented 5 days of working five in a row, which was the
• 0:56
  most just excruciating. I would not recommend that to
• 0:59
  anybody. And I know somebody had
• 1:01
  commented that they work 7 twelves.
• 1:03
  I don't know how you do it, my man, but I could not do that.
• 1:05
  So make sure you check that out on TikTok.
• 1:07
  The link is in the show notes. So make sure you follow me
• 1:10
  there. Make sure you follow on
• 1:11
  Instagram because I do repurpose a lot of educational stuff on
• 1:14
  Instagram. Even though I'm on Instagram
• 1:16
  just few times a week, but I still repurpose a lot of stuff
• 1:19
  on there. So make sure you follow on
• 1:21
  Tiktok, Instagram, make sure you get on my e-mail list too.
• 1:25
  So you can find out when I'm dropping new videos, dropping
• 1:27
  new podcast episode, and dropping videos for the protocol
• 1:31
  of the week. So if you go into the show
• 1:33
  notes, sign up for my free eight week checklist.
• 1:36
  It is a structured guide on how I feel you should learn while
• 1:40
  you are training in CT so you can get on the e-mail list.
• 1:43
  OK, and make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel.
• 1:46
  I get some good resources on there, good videos and you get
• 1:50
  the video portions of this podcast on there.
• 1:52
  OK, so make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel.
• 1:55
  Make sure you subscribe to the podcast, share it with other
• 1:58
  technologists that need to hear this information and get
• 2:00
  educated. OK, so get your asses in here.
• 2:03
  So let's get into today's episode.
• 2:05
  So today's episode is I'm going to be telling my origin story of
• 2:10
  how I became ACT tech. And I know I've, you know,
• 2:13
  probably made a couple episodes about that, but if this is your
• 2:16
  first time listening to me, hi, my name is Karina.
• 2:19
  I am a 23 year veteran of CT and I educate all new CT
• 2:25
  technologist, even experienced ones, all the knowledge and the
• 2:29
  expertise I have so you can become a better successful
• 2:32
  technologist. OK, so make sure you hit that
• 2:34
  subscribe button. So I'm going to be telling my
• 2:37
  origin story about how I became a confident badass CT
• 2:44
  technologist slash educator from ACT tech that was just
• 2:50
  completely lost when she started.
• 2:52
  Now I remember my first day in CT and it was one of the
• 2:56
  scariest things I've ever experienced.
• 2:58
  I worked at a small Community Hospital where there wasn't a
• 3:02
  lot of volume. We didn't do traumas.
• 3:04
  We didn't, do you know, anything of that sort.
• 3:06
  It was just your basic bread and butter, you know, your album
• 3:09
  publicist, your heads, your PE studies, you know, occasionally
• 3:14
  A extremity here and there. So that was basically what we
• 3:17
  did. And they were having such a
• 3:20
  shortage and a hard time recruiting texts that they came
• 3:22
  to us an X-ray and said, hey, would you be interested in cross
• 3:25
  training? We will pay you on the job and
• 3:28
  you know, to help us pick up some chips.
• 3:30
  Sure, no problem. Well, when I started my first
• 3:33
  training day NCT, I had no idea what I fucking signed up for.
• 3:36
  Now, mind you, there was no courses at that time, and this
• 3:40
  is back in 2002. There were no courses at that
• 3:43
  time. There were no classes, no CT
• 3:45
  programs that really existed. Not even CT boot camp existed at
• 3:50
  that time, guys. OK, That didn't come around
• 3:53
  until a little bit after that. So that program did not exist,
• 3:58
  OK, Because I remember the guy who started that, it was like a
• 4:01
  three day boot camp and he would host it like all over the
• 4:04
  country. And now, you know, somebody else
• 4:06
  bought it out and it's part of like a bigger company now.
• 4:09
  But that didn't even exist in the state of Nevada, where I
• 4:12
  grew up. None of these things existed.
• 4:14
  The only three things you had to learn, quote UN quote or and to
• 4:20
  study for the test was your MICCT registry review, the
• 4:24
  Mosby's CT registry review and a cross-sectional anatomy book,
• 4:29
  which all three of those I used to study and I passed the
• 4:32
  registry. OK.
• 4:34
  So I always recommend that in all my TikTok videos as well.
• 4:37
  There was no checklist. There was no structure program,
• 4:40
  there was no hospital based program where I was to really
• 4:44
  give me the foundational skills on how I should be learning.
• 4:48
  I had to ask a lot of questions. I had to write things down.
• 4:51
  I had to learn by a lot of trial and error because there was a
• 4:55
  lot of exams where I clip the head clip this clip that didn't
• 4:59
  give enough contrast, outran the contrast.
• 5:02
  There was not great enhancement missed diabetes.
• 5:06
  So it was a lot of trial and error as I started.
• 5:08
  OK. And I remember just scanning
• 5:13
  like this really just really sick patient PE, study saddle
• 5:17
  PE, and I was just absolutely terrified because I had no idea
• 5:22
  what it actually looked like. And calling the radiologist and
• 5:25
  saying, hey, this exam doesn't look right.
• 5:28
  And just having everybody come in there and rush the patient
• 5:31
  out of CT and back to the ER. Now, what I did appreciate is
• 5:35
  some of the radiologists that we worked with at that hospital, if
• 5:38
  you went into the reading room, they would actually teach you
• 5:41
  something. I had one radiologist that he
• 5:43
  would push back a lot on CT exams.
• 5:47
  I remember one night with my old TT partner, they had ordered, I
• 5:52
  want to say like 10 or 11 exams because this kid fell off of his
• 5:56
  bicycle. It wasn't a motorized bike.
• 5:58
  It what because those really didn't exist at that time.
• 6:01
  It wasn't like a motorcycle. It was just a bicycle and he was
• 6:04
  wearing a helmet and they wanted ordered like an entire pant scan
• 6:08
  on this kid. And so when we told the
• 6:11
  radiology, I just saw the orders, man, I can't tell you
• 6:14
  how we contained ourselves because he was screaming over
• 6:18
  that phone and he went ahead and talked to those doctors and all
• 6:22
  those CTS got cancelled. They just ordered a couple
• 6:24
  X-rays of the kit. So they were very conscientious
• 6:27
  when it came to dopes and conscientious on the amount of
• 6:31
  scans that we do, which that doesn't fucking apply now
• 6:35
  because they, because physicians just scan everybody and think,
• 6:39
  yes, well, if they came in with this or they possibly could have
• 6:42
  this, well, if I don't do this, then what if they do?
• 6:46
  And then I get sued, which all those reasons are valid.
• 6:49
  But there's also criteria and appropriate like guidelines that
• 6:55
  you can use to kind of rule out what you're looking for on the
• 6:58
  patient. But it's up to their discretion
• 7:00
  if they want to use it. So meanwhile, I remember I took
• 7:03
  a lot of notes. I wrote down protocols, I wrote
• 7:07
  down injection protocols, flow rates, you name it.
• 7:10
  And I remember back in 2006, I was like, OK, I think I might be
• 7:14
  ready to take this, the registry.
• 7:16
  I've been in NCT for about 3 or 4 years.
• 7:18
  Why don't I just go ahead and do it right?
• 7:21
  So I went ahead and I failed miserably because I didn't take
• 7:24
  that test seriously. I didn't study appropriately and
• 7:28
  I just thought, Oh well, you know, I got 3-4 years under my
• 7:30
  belt. I know exactly what I'm doing.
• 7:32
  This is what's going to be on the registry Wrong.
• 7:34
  How fucking wrong I was because I needed to actually study those
• 7:38
  books. I actually needed to review the
• 7:41
  material. I actually needed to know my
• 7:43
  physics. I needed to know all those
• 7:44
  things and my technical factors because those are things that
• 7:48
  are important that you need to know on the registry.
• 7:51
  Anybody that tells you the registry is easier in the X-ray
• 7:53
  is bullshitting because that's an dance level exam and it's 10
• 7:58
  times harder. OK, Well, Karina, how do you
• 8:00
  know that? Because I sat on the CT
• 8:02
  committee for ART for two years helping improve that test.
• 8:07
  OK, so I can tell you it's 10 times harder.
• 8:10
  Now, here's one thing that I want you to think about, OK?
• 8:13
  If you feel like you're failing because you're training, you're
• 8:16
  new, you're not familiar, you're not OK.
• 8:20
  The reason why I say you're not is because you never got like a
• 8:23
  clear like outline system, like structured training, because a
• 8:29
  lot of places don't have time to do that.
• 8:32
  OK, So the hospital I worked at that didn't exist.
• 8:36
  So basically is you had to ask. And I'm not saying that all the
• 8:40
  texts that I work with were good because some of them weren't OK,
• 8:44
  but you sucked all the knowledge out of all of them, which I took
• 8:48
  every little bit of advice and every little piece of education,
• 8:52
  training, whatever it was, and I wrote it down so I can keep it.
• 8:55
  And then, you know, do and then as far as how I were scanning
• 8:59
  patients, I would make it my own style.
• 9:01
  And that is the whole purpose of that.
• 9:03
  So I went to a bigger hospital after being there because
• 9:06
  management kind of changed, you know, the the organization was
• 9:11
  changing. They were getting bought out by
• 9:12
  somebody else. And so a bigger hospital had
• 9:15
  offered me way more money than what the manager came back with
• 9:19
  because I told him I said, Hey, I'm going to another hospital
• 9:22
  system, you know, what can you do for me?
• 9:24
  And basically they lowballed me and I said, well, I'm making,
• 9:27
  you know, $5 more so I'm going to go over there.
• 9:30
  So I ended up following my supervisor and my other, and the
• 9:34
  other technologist I worked with who was my CT partner for 12
• 9:37
  years. And I was working 2nd shift.
• 9:40
  So it was a bigger hospital. There was more demand, more
• 9:43
  acuity, more exams, and I really got more training.
• 9:47
  And some of the other techs that I worked with there were really
• 9:50
  good. And so I was able to learn even
• 9:52
  more. So when I switched, I had
• 9:55
  already been in CT about five years.
• 9:57
  So I was still working PM shift, I was working weekends, I was
• 10:02
  taking on call. So of course, you know, you got
• 10:04
  to pay your dues in CTI know we would all love a day shift, but
• 10:08
  you got to pay your dues. So as time kind of went on, my
• 10:11
  supervisor suddenly ended up leaving.
• 10:13
  So they had approached me and said, hey, would you be
• 10:18
  interested in being like a interim as ACT supervisor?
• 10:23
  I was like, I don't know nothing about managing CT.
• 10:25
  Why would I want to do that? And they said, listen, it's on
• 10:27
  an interim basis. You know, you have the
• 10:31
  knowledge, you have the skill. We can send you to leadership
• 10:34
  courses, you know, would you do it?
• 10:35
  I said, you know, OK, sure. Sometimes in life you have to
• 10:40
  take it. Like when a door opens, you can
• 10:42
  always explore that door and it just gives you more experience
• 10:45
  on your resume, right? So I said, OK, no problem.
• 10:48
  So I did the interim thing for probably about six months before
• 10:53
  they hired somebody and then they hired somebody, but that
• 10:55
  person ended up not working out because there were some other
• 10:59
  issues and things like that. So they came back to me and
• 11:02
  said, hey, would you do this on a permanent basis?
• 11:05
  And you can train everybody. You can decide who you want and
• 11:08
  this and that, and we can send you two more leadership courses
• 11:10
  if you want. So I decided, I said OK, So for
• 11:13
  eight years I did that where I went ahead and I spent almost 10
• 11:17
  years at that hospital that I worked at.
• 11:20
  So and I was managing CT at that time.
• 11:22
  You know, I had gotten married, I had a child because I had a
• 11:27
  stepdaughter. So, and then I had a child and
• 11:30
  come to find out, you know, my daughter had a lot of medical
• 11:34
  complexities due to a rare genetic disorder.
• 11:37
  And so I really had to step away from my role as a supervisor to
• 11:43
  kind of just be a technologist again.
• 11:45
  So that's when I went ahead and started exploring to work at the
• 11:48
  VA. I could tell you working at the
• 11:51
  VA was one of the best times in my career.
• 11:55
  So how I managed to get there was of course, and I had a
• 11:59
  little help from my ex-husband because he is a retired, he's
• 12:02
  retired military and my first assignment because I was going
• 12:06
  to work at the new VA hospital in Las Vegas.
• 12:08
  So if anybody is listening, I know there was a gentleman that
• 12:11
  had commented on one of my TikTok videos that knows the
• 12:14
  text that I work with over there.
• 12:15
  So, but that hospital hadn't even been built yet.
• 12:19
  They were in the process of building it.
• 12:20
  So they said, OK, well, we're going to send you out to Nella
• 12:23
  Center force base. I've never been out to the Air
• 12:25
  Force Base in in Vegas at all. And I said, OK, which is clear
• 12:29
  across town, OK. It is like on the northeast side
• 12:32
  of town, like, you know, just way out there, OK.
• 12:36
  So I said OK, So I remember my first experience working there.
• 12:40
  I'm telling you, if you guys ever get the opportunity to work
• 12:43
  with the military and just hear me out for a second, take
• 12:48
  yourself out of the mix of what the fuck is going on right now,
• 12:51
  OK? Because we know the world is
• 12:52
  your shit show, OK? This was back in 2012.
• 12:55
  It was the best time in my career.
• 12:57
  I learned so much from them. I even preceptor it precepted
• 13:01
  their students when we did IV sticks, things like that.
• 13:04
  I trained most of the techs that were there.
• 13:07
  They passed the registry that would cross train for eight
• 13:11
  weeks because they had to be dual modality.
• 13:14
  They've run their X-ray programs similar to ours.
• 13:17
  Theirs is structured a little bit different, but they are J
• 13:20
  cert credited. So it was one of the best times.
• 13:23
  I learned so much from those technologists.
• 13:25
  They learned so much from me and there are some of them still
• 13:29
  keep in contact too with this day.
• 13:31
  So it was one of the best times in my career because you get to
• 13:35
  expand your knowledge and you get to expand your learning
• 13:38
  curve and see how others do it. OK, so I can say that it was one
• 13:43
  of the best things that I've ever done for my career.
• 13:46
  Now how I kind of migrated into, you know, education and things
• 13:51
  like that. So one of my clinical
• 13:53
  instructors in X-ray school, he had always told me he goes, you
• 13:56
  know, you should think about teaching.
• 13:58
  You're very good at training, You should think about teaching.
• 14:01
  And I said, oh, well, you know, I don't know how I would do
• 14:03
  that. And he goes, no, you should
• 14:05
  think about teaching. And he said this to me for
• 14:07
  years. And so, and I just continued to
• 14:10
  do more staff jobs. When I came to the Midwest, I
• 14:15
  did take a management position, but that management position
• 14:18
  really didn't workout. Because when somebody else is
• 14:22
  intimidated with your talent and they feel threatened, then they
• 14:25
  go ahead and cut your job. And that's exactly what
• 14:28
  happened. But I could tell you, I ran that
• 14:30
  entire department and try to put everything back together.
• 14:34
  But when somebody who's intimidated with my experience,
• 14:37
  my knowledge and my expertise, they're going to cut that down
• 14:40
  really fast, which it didn't hurt me in the end because I
• 14:43
  just became better. And I went to what I know best
• 14:46
  is to be a technologist and excel in that.
• 14:49
  So when COVID hit, well, let me back up.
• 14:53
  Before COVID hit, I was in the process of going through a
• 14:56
  really just difficult divorce with my children's father.
• 14:59
  And I had had a second child in the process as well.
• 15:03
  OK. So it was probably one of the
• 15:05
  lowest, darkest times of my life where I was dealing with not
• 15:09
  only having all three, my daughters and then trying to
• 15:13
  navigate how I'm going to operate life with being
• 15:17
  divorced. OK, so COVID hit and of course,
• 15:21
  I'm working and being on the front lines, getting sick and
• 15:24
  doing that, taking care of children.
• 15:26
  They were doing remote learning and all those things, right?
• 15:30
  Well, I have this idea. And I kept listening to what my
• 15:33
  clinical instructor was saying and saying, hey, why don't you
• 15:37
  teach? So I created a just, you know,
• 15:40
  crash course. You know, it was like my first
• 15:44
  time teaching and I signed on with RAD CEU providers to
• 15:48
  provide like a CT 101 that gives you like 4 CES, which I will
• 15:54
  link that in the show notes as well.
• 15:56
  And just taught some of, you know, from like just a crash
• 16:01
  course from A-Z on things that you would need to know in CT as
• 16:04
  far as contrast, you know, the CT patient, you know, you know,
• 16:10
  window level, window width, all those things.
• 16:12
  And I went and I went ahead and taught it.
• 16:14
  And so I said, you know, I can actually create content and I
• 16:18
  can create things on my own and teach my own courses.
• 16:21
  So of course I have done that where I have put together a just
• 16:26
  a three course program for CT technologists who are new,
• 16:32
  they're starting their training, they're during their training,
• 16:35
  so they know the A through Z as far as the basics of CT.
• 16:39
  So I went a little bit further and said hey, let me create some
• 16:42
  tick tock content, let me put a YouTube channel and started
• 16:45
  educating and teaching technologists that way.
• 16:48
  Plus I decided to make a private 10 episode private audio series.
• 16:54
  Excuse me, so that you get a snapshot of the points of what I
• 16:59
  think you should be learning and how you should be navigating
• 17:02
  your training, which also will be LinkedIn the show notes.
• 17:06
  So all these pieces is how really I became a successful
• 17:11
  technologist, A badass educator and your CT guru on just
• 17:17
  expanding my knowledge. Number one, sharing that
• 17:20
  knowledge with you and not gatekeeping because we don't
• 17:23
  gatekeeper up here. OK, so that is kind of my origin
• 17:27
  story on how I kind of navigated into where I am today.
• 17:31
  And I had this idea of this podcast back.
• 17:34
  I've had this idea for this podcasts since 2007.
• 17:37
  Here we are. So yes, I've have had because
• 17:40
  I've been listening to podcasts that long, OK.
• 17:42
  And at that time a podcast like this did not exist.
• 17:46
  And now you find many radiology podcasts out there which all
• 17:49
  those folks that do those podcasts I've I've, you know,
• 17:53
  they are my mutuals on social media and I absolutely love
• 17:57
  every single one of them. OK, so that is kind of the
• 18:00
  origin story on how I went from being a law CT technologist.
• 18:05
  Have no idea and had no idea what I signed up for to this
• 18:08
  educator, badass Mama of three, and just an awesome CT
• 18:13
  technologist that I am because I give kudos to myself because
• 18:16
  I've really invested myself in a lot of things that I do.
• 18:19
  And it does show, considering that I've helped people, I've
• 18:22
  trained a lot of techs in my day and I've helped most of them
• 18:25
  pass the registry and give them the right tools in the right
• 18:28
  direction on how to do it. Now, sometimes what works for me
• 18:31
  may not work for you, but I am just here to guide you and give
• 18:35
  you some recommendations and give you some suggestions to
• 18:38
  take. You can take them if you don't
• 18:41
  and you can make it your own. OK, Now what I do want to stress
• 18:46
  in this episode, OK, you're not failing.
• 18:49
  You just never got some structure or some training, OK?
• 18:53
  And those are the pieces that I'm really honing in on when it
• 18:56
  comes to making courses and making sure that you understand
• 18:59
  that. OK, Now my eight week checklist
• 19:02
  lays out what I think you should be focusing in your CT training.
• 19:07
  It's like a road map that I wish I would have had because I think
• 19:11
  as a brand new person, even if you're a traveler and you're
• 19:15
  going to a brand new site, this is something that is a guide
• 19:18
  that I feel that you should follow because it'll guide you
• 19:21
  in the right direction on how to be successful at that site, how
• 19:25
  to be successful in your training.
• 19:27
  So I wish I would have had something like this, and that's
• 19:29
  why I've created it for you. So make sure you download that
• 19:33
  checklist right now because it's the road map to get you from
• 19:36
  overwhelm into structure when it comes to your CT training.
• 19:41
  So that is everything I have for this episode this week.
• 19:44
  So make sure you check out the show notes for everything that I
• 19:47
  talked about as far as following on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube
• 19:51
  channel, subscribe to the podcast, the eight week
• 19:54
  checklist and make sure that you like share, comment, make sure
• 19:58
  you share it with somebody that really can use this of value,
• 20:01
  because I put a lot of value into these podcast episodes so
• 20:05
  that you can continue gaining knowledge and becoming the most
• 20:07
  successful CT technologists out there.
• 20:09
  So thank you so much for joining me on this episode and I will
• 20:13
  catch you guys in the next episode.